bobmeyrick Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 When I'm browsing eBay I always keep my eyes open for anything unusual, and I recently came across a Sundown A36 with a "Buy it now/Make an offer" deal. I remembered that John Scofield and Allan Holdsworth were both Sundown users in the '80s. There were no bids, so I made an offer with about 8 minutes to go. The offer lapsed - the seller wasn't around when the auction finished, but he got in touch and agreed to my offer (£330), so I picked it up yesterday. He also had a Zendrive clone available (amusingly called a Hendrive, with a picture of a chicken on it) so I bought that as well. It's a good-sounding amp - the clean channel has a nice full-bodied character, and the overdrive channel sounds good to my ears, despite a lot of negative comments on the web. there are some nice touches, such as the RMS control, which varies the power, and the "Governor", which acts as a master volume. I found an interesting quote from the designer (Dennis Kager) in this interview, which may explain some of the negative comments - “People would ask, ‘What’s a Governor’ or ‘What’s RMS.’ People just wanted to turn everything to 6 and have it work. They didn’t want to play around and figure it out. Guys like Allan Holdsworth or Jan Hammer or Scofield are fantastic musicians, and they’d take the time to learn how to work the amp. Unfortunately, their names don’t sell product like Ratt or Slayer or somebody like that. The bulk of the market at the time was driven by teenagers.” Anyway, I spent some time today cleaning the amp and adding an extra panel at the back - I don't like seeing the valves/tubes exposed to possible damage. Here are some pictures, the first two are "before", the next two are "after". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobmeyrick Posted May 16, 2012 Author Share Posted May 16, 2012 I should also add that the Sundown isn't much bigger than a Fender Blues Junior, and here's a picture of them side by side, plus one of the Hendrive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pegleg32 Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Nice looking amp. Sounds like you bought it right too. Is that a 12" speaker, almost looks like a 15"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobmeyrick Posted May 16, 2012 Author Share Posted May 16, 2012 Nice looking amp. Sounds like you bought it right too. Is that a 12" speaker, almost looks like a 15"? It's a 12" speaker, an Eminence Legend which I think may be a replacement. The amp is small but heavy! According to my bathroom scales it weighs 22kg (49lbs) while the Blues Junior is 13kg (29lbs). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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